Enhanced photocatalytic activity of mesoporous carbon/CN composite photocatalysts.

Hypothesis: The CN as a cheap and clean photocatalyst shows suitable band gap to splitting water and spectral response. However the poor conductivity of CN limits the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution rate. The combination of CN and high conductivity materials will enhance the separation of photo-generated carriers and thus enhance the photocatalytic activity.

DMF as an Additive in a Two-Step Spin-Coating Method for 20% Conversion Efficiency in Perovskite Solar Cells.

DMF as an additive has been employed in FAI/MAI/IPA (FA= CH(NH), MA = CHNH, IPA = isopropanol) solution for a two-step multicycle spin-coating method in order to prepare high-quality FAMAPbIBr perovskite films. Further investigation reveals that the existence of DMF in the FAI/MAI/IPA solution can facilitate perovskite conversion, improve the film morphology, and reduce crystal defects, thus enhancing charge-transfer efficiency. By optimization of the DMF amount and spin-coating cycles, compact, pinhole-free perovskite films are obtained.

The Effect of Humidity upon the Crystallization Process of Two-Step Spin-Coated Organic-Inorganic Perovskites.

Moisture is shown to activate the reaction between PbI2 and methylammonium halides. In addition, two activating mechanisms are proposed for the formation of CH3 NH3 PbI3 and CH3 NH3 PbI3-x Clx films from a series of carefully controlled experiments. When these rapidly formed perovskite films are directly fabricated into the devices, poor photovoltaic properties are found, due to heavy surface charge recombination.

Efficient hybrid mesoscopic solar cells with morphology-controlled CH3NH3PbI3-xClx derived from two-step spin coating method.

A morphology-controlled CH3NH3PbI3-xClx film is synthesized via two-step solution deposition by spin-coating a mixture solution of CH3NH3Cl and CH3NH3I onto the TiO2/PbI2 film for the first time. It is revealed that the existence of CH3NH3Cl is supposed to result in a preferential growth along the [110] direction of perovskite, which can improve both the crystallinity and surface coverage of perovskite and reduce the pinholes. Furthermore, the formation process of CH3NH3PbI3-xClx perovskite is explored, in which intermediates containing chlorine are suggested to exist.

Mesoscopic TiO2/CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite solar cells with new hole-transporting materials containing butadiene derivatives.

Two new triphenylamine-based hole-transporting materials (HTMs) containing butadiene derivatives are employed in CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite solar cells. Up to 11.63% of power conversion efficiency (PCE) has been achieved.

Modified two-step deposition method for high-efficiency TiO2/CH3NH3PbI3 heterojunction solar cells.

Hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites (e.g., CH3NH3PbI3) are promising light absorbers for the third-generation photovoltaics.

Simple way to engineer metal-semiconductor interface for enhanced performance of perovskite organic lead iodide solar cells.

A thin wide band gap organic semiconductor N,N,N',N'-tetraphenyl-benzidine layer has been introduced by spin-coating to engineer the metal-semiconductor interface in the hole-conductor-free perovskite solar cells. The average cell power conversion efficiency (PCE) has been enhanced from 5.26% to 6.